The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small fieldfor a while, and gone my wayand forgotten it. But that was the pearlof great price, the one field that hadtreasure in it. I realise nowthat I must give all that I haveto possess it. Life is not hurryingon to a receding future, nor hankering afteran imagined past. It is the turningaside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightnessthat seemed as transitory as your youthonce, but is the eternity that awaits you.

That beautiful poem by R.S. Thomas touches the heart of Christian mindfulness. The poet remembers the phenomenal sight of a small field suddenly turned into molten gold by the sun, which had caught it at a precise angle. He went on his way and forgot the sight, but later regrets the little attention he'd paid to it, because he now realises that what he had rushed away from in his need to get on with the business of living was a glimpse of eternity: the breaking through into our time by God's time:

"It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightnessthat seemed as transitory as your youthonce, but is the eternity that awaits you."

We long for peace and tranquillity in our lives. We long for reassurance that eternity awaits us. We long for transcendent experiences which can lift us from the bits and pieces of everyday life and show us the face of the God of Love. We long for the God of Love to unveil for us the mystery of suffering and grief and loss. And yet, when moments occur in our lives, gifted moments, moments which, if we stay with them, pay attention to them, offer us a beautiful, revelatory experience of the reality that awaits us - the reality of our release from "the rags of time" and our becoming one with the God of Love - we too often pay them little heed beyond a cursory glance or thought. And thus we miss the pearl of great price, the hidden treasure, the burning bush. We turn quickly aside from " the brightnessthat seemed as transitory as your youthonce, but is the eternity that awaits you.